The upper level management gets political and managers seem to sit around at times. There seems to be a lack of mobility (from my point of view), always had work assigned like trying to keep us busy, even though at times the work seems trivial. .

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Inform employees more about what's going on in the company and not just treat artists as a separate entity from management and the corporate world.

Management really cares about the employees. Lots of talented developers. You can get exposure to many different areas of the business if you put some time into it. Strong history of promoting from within.

Cons

Company often over-reaches on the number of projects in development at a time, or under-values the specialized knowledge and skills required to succeed in new areas. Doesn't leverage the inherent strengths of their tech and platform to make easier wins.

There some pros to this companyMost employees are very niceYou don't have to dress up to workIt's a game company

Cons

While there are a few pros there are quite some cons

Expect to be overworkedMost people (while nice) have no idea what they are doingUpper management and the CEO are all part of the same "boys club" and they will protect themselves above anything elseLack of focus in production phase: teams will change priorities week in and week out, causing unfinished and broken features

Advice to ManagementAdvice

To Columbus Nova. Even though I just been laid off this is not s review made to be vengeful. This is my honest opinion. While I agree with some of the layoffs decisions if you looked hard enough you will see that Smedley and all his little buddies are the one that survived while adding no value to the company.

I have been working at Sony Online Entertainment as a contractor (more than 3 years)

Pros

San Diego is a great city. Many times there was very little work so we just browsed the web or did whatever. The work is usually pretty easy and the environment was pretty relaxed. They did have great people working for them and I was lucky to learn from them.

Cons

Most employees are temps, even after years of working there. Salaries are way below industry standards. There is no job security. I was laid off twice in 3 years. Management is really bad and mostly apathetic. You are encouraged to "stay in your place." There is almost no chance for advancement. The game ideas and general direction of the company were decided by incompetent fools, at best.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

They need management to be people who actually know and care about video games. All of marketing is terrible. They have absolutely no idea what they are doing. They don't know the products and their target market. Most of their marketing stunts are total failures and quite embarrassing to the rest of the company.

I have been working at Sony Online Entertainment full-time (more than a year)

Pros

The expectations are very low and you'll often be play testing games. Most people are very nice.

Cons

Game team leadership has an abundance of arrogance and elitism.Game teams hire their friends and ignore talent from other departments.Compensation is well below market.No stock options or grants.No opportunity for advancement (no one is let go for poor performance).It's easy to pick up bad habits as management resists change.With little to no coding standards, the game code is a mess.The company is continuing to downsize as players leave EQ and EQII.Significant use of contractors.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Eliminate under performers and promote those who excel.Develop a company wide coding standard and enforce it.Bring back the internship program, particularly for designers and developers.Stop over promising to customers.Substantially raise hiring standards and compensation.